Double Fine, Kickstarter, and how 35,000 people can change PC gaming

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Thursday, February 9th, was the kind of eye-popping, nail-nibbling day you don’t see too often in the universe of PC gaming. Sure, there are lots of anticipated releases every year, and now and then something truly scintillating (such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) will capture imaginations and headlines. But for continuous, bubbling drama dispensed over a single unremarkable weekday, nothing in a long time has quite matched the thrill of following the already-legendary Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter project.

Launched Wednesday night, it reached its goal of $400,000 before I’d even fired up my computer Thursday morning. But it didn’t stop there. It had hit $600,000 well before noon. I looked once when it was hovering around $800,000, then stepped away from the computer for, say, ten minutes, only to find it shooting past $820,000 when I returned. Someone I know, who was just as astounded as I was at the success, estimated it was averaging $1,000 in new funding every minute for considerable portions of the day. As of Friday at midnight, after just over 24 hours in existence, the project had attracted nearly 31,000 backers and its pledges had exceeded $1.15 million… and there will still 32 days left to go until the funding deadline.

This response may seem astonishing at first, but it doesn’t take too much digging to discover the source of the excitement. Double Fine Productions, the San Francisco–based gaming company founded in 2000 by Tim Schafer (who was responsible for some big adventure gaming hits of yesteryear including Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango), has been building up its street cred in recent years with games like Psychonauts and Costume Quest. Challenging current gamers’ notions of entertainment and often forcing them to think beyond the boundaries of the first-person shooters that have long flooded the market, Double Fine has developed a devoted audience interested in the company’s blend of old-school know-how and contemporary technology.

This latest venture looks set to continue that trend. The Kickstarter project page doesn’t offer a lot of specifics about the intended game, except to say that it will be a “‘Point-and-Click’ graphic adventure game for the modern age,” presumably along the lines of the titles that catapulted Schafer and his cohort Ron Gilbert (Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island) to prominence, and be created over the course of roughly the next six to eight months. Investors are being asked to make something of a leap of faith, but judging from my own past experience with Schafer’s work alone (I found Day of the Tentacle an unbridled delight when I played it in 1993) I’d say there’s real reason for optimism.

I would submit, however, that the frenzy has a secondary source as well. Double Fine isn’t just proposing that people give them money so they can make the game in isolation before releasing it and moving on; the company wants to involve the backers in the creation process itself. The project promises exclusive monthly video updates in a professionally shot “documentary series” that will encourage “total transparency” with the people putting up the dough for it. An online discussion forum will let backers interact with developers and even vote on crucial game decisions. Naturally, they’ll also have access to both a private beta test and the finished version of the game. And note that these aren’t premiums you get only with exorbitant donations: Anyone ponying up $15 or more gets to be a part of it all.

Tagged In

This sounds like a very fascinating project. However, it sounds to me like Double Fine is asking for investors and offering as a return on investment good feelings and a free game. I might as well bring it up now, because someone will eventually. What about monetary return? Profit sharing? Doubt it.

Hey, I loved the point-n-click adventure games from back in the day. I would love to see a return of that genre. And I hope this project succeeds. But would a lot of people simply be satisfied with, “Well, thanks for the help. Don’t you feel good about the part you played? Enjoy your free copy?”

Anonymous

It’s an interesting premise and one which will hopefully reignite interest in a genre of gaming which is very under represented today. The creative process though, having your investors write the story, may be a bit odd and has killed a few fan made productions over the years. Platforms like SCUMM already exist and glossier engines (Such as Telltales’) permit a richer graphical experience so I don’t think Double Fine are doing anything more than advertising their intent and accumulating cash to make it happen. I think their pricing system is a bit high too, Ken and Roberta Williams (Nice to see your nod to them) knocked out quality games with little more than a computer to their names.

However, if the comedy and puzzles are as immersive as anything penned by Ron Gilbert or Al Lowe (And Tim Schafer has proven he’s of that calibre) we should get a great game, educational and funny documentary and hopefully whet an appetite for more of the same spread throughout the community.

Whilst you wait though, feel free to check out Shadows of the Empire, a fan made game that’s been 8 years in development http://soteadv.blogspot.com/

Sajjad Thaika

Hi Matthew,

Hope your are doing fine.

My name is Sajjad from Zighra, a company based out of Ottawa, Canada. http://www.zighra.com. We are into developing mobile authentication technology using human kinetics.

As a reader of your ExtremeTech blogs, I was hoping to get some advice from you. I read your article about Double Fine Adventure’s Kickstarter project and was wondering what motivated you to write about the project?. I am really curious to know how to appeal to major blogging influencers like you.

Zighra in partnership with Toyuma is launching a kickstarter project to bring to market our new Password Manager App – PassZweipe.

One of the major features of this application is that unlike other password managers, you will never have to remember or type in master password, instead you can login to your app with a simple finger swipe and the app will uniquely recognize and authenticate you.

I feel I could learn a lot from you on how to make articles standout and be eye catching. It would be great if you could please advise me on how to grab the attention of fellow bloggers like you to promote a project?

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